Ongoing problems with nbn may lead to a major heart specialist leaving the North-West Coast, says a specialist.

Dr Geoff Evans, head of the Charles Clinic Heart Centre, travels from Launceston to Burnie three days a week, to see up to 20 patients a day.

Although he is deeply committed to improving heart health on the Coast, he is seriously considering shutting his clinic in the North West Regional Hospital precinct because he cannot get fast enough internet speeds.

“We are now in the unfortunate position of having to decide whether to reduce our services or withdraw them entirely,” Dr Evans said.

His troubles started when he thought they were over. “We had been struggling for several years to upgrade desperately needed heart care services, because of the lack of connectivity. So when we recently got a new nbn connection, we thought our worries were over.”

But the nbn speed turned out to be little faster than dial up. “As a result, the work of our clinic was actually hampered, not improved,” he said.

“We can't function in this way,” said Dr Evans, whose business needs to upload and send large image files from his patients to their GPs. “We are functioning in a jury-rigged manner in the hope that it gets better. We are using two 4G modems to support the nbn service.”

He sent a letter to the Federal Minister for Communication, Senator Mitch Fifield, but has had no answer.

Dr Evans has been offered premises in a new building in the Burnie medical precinct, but cannot commit to it because he cannot guarantee that his clinic would get 10 Mbps upload speed on the nbn network.

Dr Evans’ business manager Alistair Sherman said, “I’m really appreciative of what the guys at nbn have done so far. All we need is a written guarantee that they will turn it on on such and such a date, and that we will get a minimum 10Mbs speed. But they won’t.”

Russell Kelly, nbn State Corporate Affairs Manager, said the company was installing a new node within 500 metres of Dr Evans’ clinic and it should be working by the end of August.

“Fibre to the Node typically delivers speeds of around 50 Mbps download and 30 Mbps upload for premises closer than 500 metres to a node,” said Mr Kelly.

“The speeds available will be comparable to speeds across the nbn Fibre to the Node network,” he said, adding that work had already started on the new node at the hospital.

But Mr Sherman was concerned the region would not be able to attract specialists.

“If they’re serious about investment and jobs, make sure the area is capable of using 20th century technology,” he said. “The technology can be a game - changer.”